District residents should be dancing through the empty halls of Congress today, while Republicans are off licking their wounds and Democrats are celebrating in their home territory. If you consider the District to be run like a plantation, with the two houses of Congress up on the Hill as our overseers, this week’s change in masters was a cause for celebration. Rarely in the city’s history of subjugation have we come out of an election in such good shape.
Ask Eleanor Holmes Norton.
“It’s a new day for the city, a new day for Congress,” our congresswoman told me, “and I intend to take advantage of both.”
Consider the new landscape. In Virginia, Democrat Jim Webb has knocked off Republican Sen. George Allen. We don’t know how Webb will react to our need for more autonomy, but he has to be better than Allen and his brand of nasty neglect.
Democratic Congressman Jim Moran was easily re-elected. Always a friend of our hemmed-in federal enclave, his influence will grow.
Even the Republican congressmen are our buddies. Tom Davis, from Fairfax, has been our champion in his days as a leader in the GOP. He and Norton are the chief architects of the legislation that would give our delegate a vote on the House floor. And Frank Wolf, who representsMcLean west to Clarke County, is sympathetic enough to the crime problem in D.C. to call for cooperation between federal and local police. But the Democratic takeover of the House makes our future look rosy, starting at the top.
Nancy Pelosi, prospective Speaker of the House, may represent San Francisco, but she’s almost a local girl. She was raised in Baltimore, where her father and brother served as mayor. She came to D.C. to attend Trinity College, located off North Capital Street.
“We’re good friends,” Norton says. Pelosi’s second in command as majority leader could well be Steny Hoyer, from Prince George’s County.
“We get along beautifully,” says Norton. “He’s been my partner.”
Hoyer drives to work often over the South Capital Street bridge. He realized it was falling down. He came up with the plan and the money to rebuild it as a grand gateway.
Ben Cardin, who will become the new senator from Maryland, has been a House member since 1987. Says Norton: “We worked together often.”
Norton says she will be working hard with her new, high-ranking allies to increase D.C. budget and legislative autonomy, but between now and Thanksgiving she has her eye on passing the D.C. Voting Rights Act that would give her full power in the House. It’s winding its way through committees and has a chance to reach the House floor. Even President George Bush, dazed from his defeat, said this week that he would “take a look” at the bill if it came up. Who knows, it might pass Congress, and he might sign it. And we would have cause to dance through the halls of Congress, again.
